New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- A 56-year-old widow, describing years of aggression, theft and hypersexual behaviour by her adopted teenage son, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking directions to hand over his custody to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) or any government or private organisation the court considers appropriate a plea that reads less like a legal filing and more like an exhausted mother's plea for help she can no longer provide alone.

The petition describes a household living under quiet strain an ageing mother, her widowed daughter and an unmarried sister, with no adult male member, who say they no longer feel safe or equipped to manage the 13-year-old's escalating behavioural difficulties, later attributed by doct...